Ector County, Texas — The Jail, the Sheriff, the Judges

The Detention Center

Ector County Detention Center

Operated byEctor County Sheriff's Office, Detention Bureau
County publishes a jail nameYes - "Ector County Detention Center" on the Sheriff and Detention Bureau pages
Beds667 (state-certified capacity, per the county's Sheriff page)
Jail address2500 S Highway 385, Odessa, TX 79760 (mail: P.O. Box 331, Odessa, TX 79760)
Jail phone432-335-3060
Phone vendorT-Netix / Securus named on the county page
Beds and population, 2026-08816 people held in 1,079 rated beds

Source: Ector County, TX - Detention Bureau · checked 2026-08-22

Transparency rating

5/10Partial

✓The jail is named
✓Who is in custody
✓Beds and daily population
✓What it costs taxpayers
✗Deaths in custody — not published
✗PREA audits — not published
✗Independent inspection — not published
✗Who else it holds, and for how much — not published
✗How to post bond — not published
✓Phone, video and commissary rates

This rates disclosure, not conduct — what Ector County publishes about a jail its taxpayers own, checked 2026-08-22. Nothing here says the jail is run well or badly. Every mark moves the moment the county posts the document.

The Building

You paid for it. Here is what the record says it cost.

Year builtNot found
Original costNot found
Paid for byNot found
Beds667

Since then

Ector County commissioners approved $25 million in public debt over 20 years on 22 May 2017 to expand the detention centre, with JSA Architects contracted for over $1.8 million and construction expected to begin in early 2018; the stated aim was to end paying to house inmates out of county (Correctional News, https://correctionalnews.com/2017/06/06/ector-county-funds-detention-center-expansion/). Not confirmed on a county page.

The Sheriff

Sheriff Mike Griffis

OfficeEctor County Sheriff's Office
Main phone432-335-3050
Detention Center phone432-335-3060
Warrant Division432-335-3584

Still needed

Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail

Source: Ector County, TX - Sheriff · checked 2026-08-22

The Judges

The county lists a 446th District Court but its page names only a court administrator, not a judge, so no name for that bench is recorded.

County Judge

Dustin Fawcett

County Courts at Law

Brooke Hendricks (County Court at Law)
Christopher M. Clark (County Court at Law #2)

Justices of the Peace

Carlos Chavez (Precinct 1)
Missi Walden (Precinct 2)
W.T. "Bill" Bowen (Precinct 3)
Elizabeth R. Baeza (Precinct 4)

District Courts

Denn Whalen (70th)
Justin Low (161st)
Lori Ruiz-Crutcher (244th)
John Shrode (358th)

Still needed

The county's bond schedule
Share of the jail population held pretrial
Median time from booking to first appearance

Source: the state judiciary · checked 2026-08-22

The County Commissioners

They pay for the jail. The sheriff runs it.

What they controlThe detention budget, the building itself, and the agreements that let other agencies rent its beds.
What they don'tDay-to-day operations. The sheriff is separately elected and answers to voters, not to the board.
The boardBoard of County Commissioners →
Where the jail money is decidedAgendas and minutes →

Notes on the record

Fees are marked yes because the county's Detention Bureau page publishes an actual rate: "an inmate can make a thirty-minute local call for $4.90 (rates are subject to change)." The same page states that the commissary price list is deliberately not given out to the general public, and video visitation is not offered - visits are in person.
Capacity is marked yes on the published 667-bed state-certified figure; no daily population count is published.
The inmate search is linked from the county's Detention Bureau page as "Inmate Information" and runs on a Tyler Technologies portal.
Ector County also runs an older site at co.ector.tx.us; ectorcountytx.gov is the current official site and was used for this record.
No county-specific TCJS inspection page or report could be found.
Four commissioners plus the County Judge, who presides. Precinct 1 Mike Gardner, Precinct 2 Greg Simmons, Precinct 3 Don Stringer, Precinct 4 Billy Hall; County Judge Dustin Fawcett (named on the county's FY2025 adopted budget).
County seat: Texas State Library and Archives Commission — Counties and County Seats

The record

11 people have died in the Ector County jail since 2020.

4 by suicide

3 illness or medical

11 deaths in all, 2016 onward

Deaths where the person had not been convicted of the charge holding them7 of 11

Deaths within the first week of arriving5

Most recent death on the state's record2025-05-23

People held, 2026-08816 in 1,079 beds

Share not convicted of the charge holding them74.1%

Deaths: Texas Justice Initiative, the cleaned copy of the Texas Attorney General’s custodial death reports — the state’s own public index carries no cause of death and has not been refreshed since August 2025. Population: Texas Commission on Jail Standards monthly report. Counted, not estimated.

These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Ector County and what it costs the people who live here. Nationally, almost 77% of the people who died in local jails in 2019 had not been convicted of anything, and suicide was the leading single cause of those deaths (Bureau of Justice Statistics, Mortality in Local Jails, 2000–2019).

How much is your sheriff — and your judge — costing you?

Your VOTE is POWERFUL.

The sheriff who runs this jail is elected. So are the commissioners who pay for it.

Names verified 2026-08-22 · dollars and outcomes still being gathered